I love this town
With all the live music I managed to experience in one weekend, I can see why they called it Nova Scotia Music ‘Week’. Sunday evening, before heading to the Gala Awards show, I went to the Mersey House again to see Cape Breton born, now Halifax based Silvergun perform. The Mersey House was my most…
Rock and roll all night
After the showcases wrapped up on Saturday night I gave in to some (not-so) heavy persuasion to leave Lane’s Privateer Inn where my room was conveniently located two doors down from where the entertainment was taking place to hopping into a shuttle bus and embarking on a long, slow, slippery journey out to White Point…
Snowflakes…and Showcases
Lane’s Privateer Inn was ROCKING last night! After the Songwriters Circle, I headed over to Lane’s to see one of my favorite Halifax-based groups, Ryan MacGrath and Harlow perform. The emcee of the showcase said they were “undoubtedly the best dressed performers in Liverpool” as they all matched each other dressed in different styles but…
Songwriters Circle of Snow Angels
Let me send a big “Cheers!” out to everyone that came out and braved the first snow storm of the year last night! The slippery roads were extremely hazardous, but that didn’t keep the out of town performers from coming down to Liverpool and the music fans from coming out and filling their boots with…
What a snowy day of music
Not only did November 10, 2007 bring us the first snow fall of the year, it also brought me to Liverpool, Nova Scotia where I am enjoying Nova Scotia Music Week. This weekend is organized by Music Nova Scotia (formally known as MIANS, or Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia, which is a non-profit organization…
Down the Rabbit Hole
And What Alice Found There is weird and wonderful. It combines a smidgen biography (of Charles Dodgson –AKA Lewis Carroll–and his muse Alice Liddell), with a dash of Victorian social history (from photography to imperialism), and mixes them with physical theatre, puppetry and video components. The end result is wildly original and very entertaining. Alice…
Rip it up
This Saturday, November 10, experience the best fall warm-up scenario known to humans: a heated bar, punk music and dancing (optional). The Riptides (Ottawa), The Guts (New Hampshire), The Hemingways and The Varsity Weirdos (Moncton) play at Gus’ Pub (10:30pm, $6). Described as “no-frills leather jacket, high-top, three-chord punk rock from guys that your girlfriend…
Mappers delight
Peter Kelly’s round table on violence starts on Wednesday, November14, with closed panel discussions that you’re not invited to. Sorry, all. However, you definitely are invited to participate in The Coast’s online violence forum, taking place right now. Tell us where, when and how you’ve been attacked in Halifax: We’ll collect and present your stories…
I’m with HIR
Wednesday loses its rep as the least funny day of the week, thanks to the arrival of Holly Prazoff, Inessa Frantowski and Rebecca Addelman, with their Spare Some Changes comedy tour, coming to Ginger’s (1662 Barrington) on November 14. A mash-up of alternative-minded sketches, video and stand-up, mixed with music from The Just Barelys (also…
Best Street
First runner up: Argyle Second runner up: Barington
Best Use Of Taxpayers’ Money
First runner up: Bike Lanes/Paths Second runner up: Recycling
Best Place For A First Date
First runner up: The Fireside Second runner up: The Better End
Best Place To Read A Book
First runner up: Point Pleasant Park Second runner up: Halifax Citadel
Perfect storm
Congrats to all the winners at the African Nova Scotian Music Awards, which powered through post-tropical pain-in-the-ass Noel on Saturday at Casino Nova Scotia, awarding Trobiz the ANSMA Artist of the Year award and Jordan Croucher the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award. Avoiding power outages should also be awarded, we think.
Schoolbus rocks
Despite sounding slightly nerve-racking (who will you sit beside?), the Music Nova Scotia Indie Bus sounds like a pretty great idea. Driving to Liverpool, for Nova Scotia Music Week, the bus will take a gang of interested parties for a day of learning. Check out such essential workshops such as “Collectives and DIY Record Labels:…
b their guest
2b theatre’s Revisited, running November 14 to 25, gets a big “Number One” foam hand. It’s the first time the acclaimed production has been presented in Halifax, and the first to be held on Citadel High’s new drama stage. Seating is limited—only 28 audience members gather around a table each night to listen to Tom…
Wave hello
In case you missed Eva Madden’s short film Eastern Shore at the Atlantic Film Festival, stay up late on Sunday, November 11 at midnight, when CBC’s Canada Reflections runs it again. As close as you’ll get to surfing without chipping teeth, the National Screen Institute Drama Prize-winner examines life, relationships and the choices we make.…
Celine Dion
I mean, seriously? Celine Dion?
Malalai Joya
Dubbed “the bravest woman in Afghanistan” by the BBC, Malalai Joya speaks tonight, November 8, at the Scotiabank Memorial Auditorium (6135 University). If you’ve never heard of Malalai Joya, you haven’t been following your Canadian news feed this week. Joya has been making her way across the country to speak about Canada’s role in the…
Best Place To Walk Your Dog
Recovery from Juan and a particularly ravenous insect has been slow, but it hasn’t stopped us from visiting, alone or with the hound, or attending the annual Shakespeare in the Park shows. A recent flurry of replanting, some 15,000 new trees, should see the density of green increase in the near future, though a positive…
Two steps forward
I’m a glass-half-empty kind of guy,but two recent bits of environmental news threaten to make me uncharacteristically hopeful. Fear not, though: Every ray of sunshine casts a shadow, so I’ll be sure to call attention to the dark. First is the province’s announcement that 1,350 hectares of crown land in the Blue Mountain—Birch Cove Lakes…
Irony curtain
Chromeo have a lot going on. This year’s hit album Fancy Footwork launched synth, keyboard and talk-box king P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) and ultra-smooth vocalist and guitarist Dave 1 (David Macklovitch) even further into the private jet-fuelled, champagne-soaked world they’ve created. Playing at the Marquee on November 10, Chromeo’s songs are all about one subject: Ladies.…
American Gangster
American Gangster begins in 1968 and would have greater impact were it released then. Ridley Scott fills in the usual crime kingpin showpieces with tight direction and one notable standout: It’s the first major film since New Jack City about the rise of a black gangster. This distinction gives the typical anti-hero narrative a social…
Best Street
Editor’s note: With its latest Best Street win in 2007, Spring Garden Road was elevated to the Best of Halifax Hall of Fame. Did you know Spring Garden is more than simply the most-lauded shopping street in our city? It’s also a designated “area.” According to the Spring Garden Business Association, the area stretches from…
Joya and freedom
Six years after Canadian troops were deployed to Afghanistan, Malalai Joya, a former Afghan parliamentarian, speaks from the belly of the so-called beast. Twenty-nine year old Joya, who was born in Afghanistan but grew up in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan, is a women’s rights activist and former member of the Afghan parliament, the…
Best Theatre
Editor’s note: With its latest Best Theatre win in 2007, Neptune was elevated to the Best of Halifax Hall of Fame. Two-thousand and seven was the most successful year in the 44-year history of Neptune Theatre in terms of bums-on-seats. More people took in a Neptune show than ever before. These days, with so many…
Live music photo
Check this week’s pic of Andrea Curry, Dwight D’Eon and Nathan Bishop MacDonald.
Violent Halifax Map 2007
Violent crimes which were reported to police are represented with blue push-pin icons. The unreported crimes we’ve learned about are represented in red. Click on the markers for a detailed description of the crime. Click here for a larger map. Share your personal experiences of violence on the streets of Halifax – where and when,…
CD Reviews
Be Bad, Basia Bilat, Deborah Harry, Chamillionaire & PJ Harvey plus over a thousand to browse.
Table talk
In 2b theatre’s acclaimed play Revisited, there’s no physical division between audience and actors, just strangers coming together to share stories.
Book review
I Tanya by Brian Joseph Davis
“Playing straight”
Q I came out after a number of years of “playing straight.” I had two relatively long-term monogamous gay relationships, then converted a friend into a boyfriend. We bought a house, got a dog and live in the burbs. Supposedly, life is good. I’m a fairly athletic guy and I got started playing sports partly…
Jitters
There didn’t appear to be any opening night nerves at Dartmouth Players. The cast of David French’s backstage comedy Jitters were in fine form, and the real play appeared to go off without any of the calamities that befall the cast of the fictional play. Jitters is perfect fare for small amateur theatre, despite the…
Rocco talk
Six years since her first visit, Liz Feltham returns to Rocco’s in Dartmouth with high hopes.
Paddle to the medal
She has a dry, firm handshake. Her smile is brilliant, white-toothed, her skin tanned from all the outdoor training. On her left wrist is an oversized sports watch and dangling beneath her throat, a gold medallion of a kayaker, a gift from her parents after she won her first gold medal. The evidence of an…
Winner’s Picks
“Certainly Al Tuck,” says Joel Plaskett, of people who are Halifamous to him. “He’s famous in my world for his Halifax songs.” He also finds a few places Halifamous, for instance The Last Word Bookstore (2160 Windsor, 423-2932). “I go in and talk to Wayne when I’m home.” He also mentions his drummer, Dave Marsh—“I…
Wonder full
Almost everyone knows of Lewis Car-roll and his fictional Alice. Most people have read (or seen) Alice’s hysterical and nonsensical adventures in the fantastical world of Wonderland, where rabbits carry pocket watches, caterpillars puff on hookahs and nibbling cake will make a person grow to nine feet tall. Less familiar are the real Alice Liddell,…
Extra special
“People still come up to me and say, “When is it going to play?’ So, that’s good…I’ll get the word out.” Wanda Taylor has just heard that Poor Boy’s Game, directed by Clement Virgo and co-written by Chaz Thorne, the toast of this year’s Atlantic Film Festival, is opening November 9. A journalism student at…
This week’s horoscopes
Time to hold your pet pig upside-down, Gemini, says Rob Brezsny.
DVD Review
The Hoax – Directed by Lasse Hallström
Tapped out
It was Amy Kilbride’s perfect house. It wasn’t very big, but it was big enough, and the little two-storey needed a little work, but not too much: Her partner, Noel Taussig, was a carpenter anyway. And the price was right. They bought it. Then one afternoon, in March of this year, a contractor showed up…
Canada arms
In his bestselling book, “War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,” the veteran American war correspondent Chris Hedges writes about “the cold and brutal efficiency of industrial warfare.” After describing the “impersonal slaughter” of fleeing Iraqi soldiers in the first Gulf War, Hedges writes it’s no wonder the world’s richest countries “live in such…
Best Place To Dance
<i.5184 Sackville, 422-2957 First runner up: The Dome, 1741 Argyle, 422-6907 Second runner up: Tribeca Bistro Bar, 1588 Granville, 492-4036
Best Party Venue
5184 Sackville, 422-2957 First runner up: Bubbles Mansion, 5287 Prince, 405-4505 Second runner up: The Marquee Club, 2037 Gottingen, 429-2442
Best Neighbourhood Bar
2605 Agricola, 423-7786 First runner up: Charlie’s Club, 5580 Cunard, 429-1401 Second runner up: Bearly’s House of Blues & Ribs, 1269 Barrington, 423-2526
